Well I have been reading alot on here & have a lot of the same problems most on here have..... Numbness,tingling on both hands,some on arm as well. I have went to a Neurological Consultant here in my home town a couple of times for some problems. But I can't stand him & when I get my records from his office he stated several other things than what he told me & my wife.
Currently seeing a "Pain Management Dr." & I really do like him. But the injections he gave me don't seem to work over 24 hours... Anyone else ever have that as well? He does the injections into the facets he says & then asks how does that feel? Then also says what kind of improvement is it now... I tell him 60-80% better. He has only done 2 injections & then stopped. So I have seen him 3 times since. He wanted to do "Radiofrequency" but the insurance wouldnt approve it.
So, I am gonna post my MRI report on here of my cervical & of my lumbar as well... Comment are very welcome on all or part of it. And if anyone has been to Norton Spine I would really like your opinions of the Dr,s there. I am seing a Dr.G.(for short not going to post his real name. but it does begin with G).

MRI CERVICAL SPINE W/O CONTRAST
Fndings:
There is redemonstration of the normal cervical lrdosis. Cervical
spine is normal in course & caliber. No signal abnormality within the cervical cord. There is multi level degenerative disc disease.
C2-3: No signifigant spinal stenosis
C3-4: There is a small disc bulge. Thecal sac measures 8mm representing mild to moderate spinal stenosis. No signifigant foraminal encrachment.
C4-5: There is disc bulge/disc osteophyte complex which is asymmetric to the left. This effaces the left lateral recess. Central canal is narrowed to 7mm representing moderate spinal stenosis. There is moderate left-sided neural forminal encroachment.
C5-6 There is a disc bulge/posterior disc osteophyte complex which asymmtetric to the left which effaces the lateral recess.
There is moderate left-sided neural forminal encroachment.
Central canal is narrowed to 7mm representing mild spinal stenosis.
C6-7: There is a right paracentral disc osteophyte complex which effaces the right lateral recess.
Central canal i narrowed to 7mm representing moderate spinal stenosis. There is severe right-sided neural forminal encroachment.
C7-T1: No signifigant spinal stenosis or neural forminal encroachment.
Impression:
1.MULTILEVEL DEGENERATION DISC DISEASE SIMILAR TO PREVIOS EXAMINATION.(I had one other MRI 2 years earlier)
2.AT THE C4-5 & C5-6 LEVELS. THERE ARE DISC BULGES/POSTERIOR DISC OSTEOPHYTE COMPLEXES
WHICH ARE ASYMMETRIC TO THE LEFT & EFFACE THE LEFT LATTERAL RECESS. THERE IS ASSOCIATED
MODERATE LEFT-SIDED NEURAL FORMINAL ENCROACHMENT AT THESE LEVELS & MODERATE SPNAL STENOSIS.
3.aT THE C6-7 LEVEL. THERE IS A RIGHT PARACANTRAL DISC OSTEOPHYTE COMPLEX PRODUCING MODERATE
SPINAL STENOSIS,EFFACING THE RIGHT LATERAL RECESS & CONTRIBUTING TO SEVERE RIGH SIDED NEURAL FORMINAL ENCROACHMENT.
________________________________________ _________
EXANMINATION: MRI OF LUMBAR SPINE

FINDINGS: Multiplanar, multisequence MR imanging of the lumbar spine was performed.
Vertebral alignment is
well maintained. The conus is at the L1 level. There is a hemangioma within the L1 verebral body.
The lumbar spinal canal is congenitally narrow econday to short pedicles from the L2 through L4 levels.
The L1-L2 intervertrebral disc space is within normal limits.
The L2-L3 intervertrebral disc space dmonstrates no signifigant neural foraminal or spinal canl stenosis.
At the L3-L4 level, there is a mild bilateral neural foraminal narrowing secondary to patients short pedicles. No
signifigant central spinal canal stenosis is identified.
At the L4-L5 level, there is a mild broad based disc bulge with mild bilateral neural forminal narrowing.
No signifigant spinal canal stenosis is identified. There is narrowing of the bilateral, lateral recesses secondary
to the patient's mild broad based disc bulge and congenitally narrow spinal canal.
At the L5-S1 level, there is mild left-sided neural foraminal narrowing. No signifigant central spinal canal stenosis identified.
IMRESSION:
1. NO SIGNIFIGANT CENTRAL SPINAL CANAL STENOSIS IDENTIFIED.

2. THE LUMBAR SPINAL CANAL IS CONGENITALLY NARROW,AS DECIBED ABOVE.
3.THERE IS MILD NEURAL FORAMINAL NARROWING AT THE L-3-L4,L4-L5 AND L5-S1 LEVELS, AS DECRIBED ABOVE.
4. THE LOWER THORACIC CORD IS NORMAL IN CALIBER AND SIGNAL. THE NERVE ROOTS OF THE CAUDA EQUINA IS ALSO NORMAL IN APPERANCE.

Well I went to Louisville & saw the Dr.... I really liked going there. The staff I dealt with were really Prompt & very courtious. I had to get a neck xray which wasn't bad at all(the techs didn't bend & prod me in very painful positions).
I really liked that I only had to walk about 15 feet to get that done.
Then Dr.G walked in. He was very courteous(as were all of the staff). He looked over my MRI, the xray that was just taken & did a brief exam... Conducting of checking balance,reflexes,& some symptoms. The Dr. then asked who had I seen before...
So I told him. HE WAS NOT IMPRESSED BY THAT DOCTOR AT ALL!!!
He then proceeded to tell me that he was thinking the myleon sheath covering my nerves was being compressed or was worn away from the discs & such(or that's is my take of it). He also said that he wants to get a "Myelogram". That way he can see how bad the spinal cord is being compressed. He also explained that I could be needing a 4 level (or more)ACDF. He said that he wants the myelogram done so that he & the nuerosugeon can meet the same day to discuss with me what my options are. He said that he wants to know for sure if the cord is being compressed enough that if I happen to slip on something that I would not be paralyzed from that. Or if the cord is better than what he thinks & that we can discuss what plan of action we can take.
So overall I was impressed by him. I will also continue to post how it goes with Norton Healthcare & the other doctors there.

Also some of my symptoms are pins & needles(p/n) in my heals. Very painful to walk flat footed also. I tend to walk on "tippy toes" as well. I have p/n in both hands,burning sensations in left upper arm.
It is very hard for me to rotate my neck up,down& from side to side. As I am sure alot here also suffer from the same.

Luckily no problems with loss of bowels.

Also, my trucking career is over also. Which I pretty much figured that. I have been off work since last August & it just became too painful for me to operate safely. Plus with the meds I am taking would/could be a very big liability for me & any company I would work for. The biggest thing is should I try to apply for disability? Or wait for the other tests & see what he thinks? Or just try to get all of my P's & Q's all together & see what a lawyer thinks? I tried last year to turn a wrench. But that didn't last long at all. I was in so much pain I couldn't even walk to my car after work. I do go see my friends at the garage & cut up & such. But have a hard time even standing for more than 15 minutes or sitting that long also without being painful.
The heating pad is my best friend as well.

So sorry about all your pain issues. Have you had a mylogram done before? The dr you saw most recently sounds like he is very thorough which is a wonderful feeling. Always interesting when you get a bad reaction from one dr about another dr you were seeing. Hopefully you can get some answers now and some relief as well. As far as disability, you will have to have really good documentation from drs. Have you been going at least every month? I recently applied for disability...didn't initially get an attorney because I thought I had everything. Apparently they will virtually always deny everyone twice and then the third and final time, when you go in front of the judge, you "may" qualify for it. How did you initially hurt your back...was it from the work you were doing? Good luck

Hey KG, thanks for you reply...
I have been going to my pain management Dr. every month, or at the very least my primary. Honestly, we don't know how I hurt my neck. I haven't been in any wrecks & such. I was in the Ky. National Guard & Army about 15 years ago.
I didn't have any symptoms in my neck or back really from this. My primary made the comment one time that I may have just inherited my bad bones from my parents(My father had several injuries & surguries from the coal mines).Which could be very true. Or like I have heard you can get a hernia,slipped disc & such just from sneezing.

Fivuring out the how of getting hurt isnt usually some great story. Its usually something really passive : slipped a little, missed a step, in my case...a swing (which was already broken) fell out from under me while swi ging...nothing glameous about any of thise things, but like you said, a good sneeze can cause a big problem. Since there isn't anything in particular you can remember that would cause any problems, perhaps your problem could be something like degenerative discs, totally guessing.

Well you'll definitely have the documentation from you pm doc. Its hard to keep your chin up and keep going...AND smiling like everything is ok keep us posted and good luck with the mylogram.

Wow! KG, a broken swing. I do bet that hurt. Did you injure your lumbar or cervical?
I do have DDD also in my neck, which does contribute to the problem too.
I did get a call today that I go on the 28th of this month back to louisville for the myelogram & a consult with Dr.G also. I do have to say that they(Norton Spine) are getting the ball rolling with me. I also got his dictation in the mail today too.
My wife works in medical records at a local hospital & she says how important it is to get everything for your own personal records as well. You can really learn alot from reading & going over what is/has been said by your doctors.....
For example Dr.C here in Evansville dictated that he sent me to PT. But has never said it or wrote/ordered it out for me. Also I asked him about the neuropathy in my facial & head regions. He said"I have no idea why you are having that". Man, my wife was totally livid with that answer. She was seeing red so much I had to walk to her right away before she went off on him.
Next post I will do a brief summary of what Dr.G said too. That way thee posts aren't as long & run togther too much.

Assessmant & plan:
This gentleman with some myelopathic symptoms & a pretty impressive MRI scan.
I think the question as to whether his symptoms are just forminal compression & nerve based versus central cord compression & myelopathic are not completely resolve. I think he needs a cervical myelogram & post myelographic CT to try & help determine what is any additional intervention would be appropriate for him.

First of all, sorry about all those typos in the other post! i was using my phone and when i do, o cant see the screen i am typing on...who knew!

Well I'm glad you are going to be making some progress with your care. I have been going through something similar ...my gp that seems to blow off what I'm telling him, so needless to say i won't be going back.

Yes, when I went flying from the swing I got hurt. I basically landed on my low back first ( feet were up and hands still holding the ropes)

My neck was sore dur to whiplash but oh my....my back was an issue and u fortunately still is. I've had 4 surgeries and have been at pain management for 7 yrs now ( this happened 18 yrs ago). My neck has been having issues for the past 2 yrs because of a car accident. I had to stop rather abruptly because the car in front of me did...he was going to make a left turn but almost missed the turn. A few seconds later, we were hit extremely hard by a car that slammed into us. Thank goodness the car in front of me had just turned as the impact happened. She said she was going about 50 mph...and never hit her brakes, tried to avoid us, nothing. I have a feeling she was using her phone on some way or paying attention to her daughter in the back seat. I too had my daughter with me. So my neck has been a bit of a wreck itself ever since.

For your mylogram, be sure they give you something you can take ahead of time so you are not stressed or nervous about it. I've had it done twice. The first time , not so great, the second MUCH better. You have to be sure to lay flat on your back for a while after and just be aware that some people get spinal headaches from it. You can ask about them using a blood patch...they would take some of your blood and put it in the site of the injection to sort of patch up the needle mark so that you don't loose any extra spinal fluid. They did not due this for me either time, but I only found out about it before the second time...but I didn't have any headache the second time. They had my husband go get me a hamburger to eat afterwards and eat it while I was still laying flat in the recovery area. You must lay flat at home too. They can apparently get some good info with the test.

By the way, I don't blame your wife for being irate! Good luck with everything. Hopefully these are the steps in the right direction to getting you some relief.

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No problem on the typos there KG...
I can't blame you that you don't want to see your gp anymore... Your gp should be the one who listens to you & makes recomendations to other doctors & such. For him not to listen to you or to make suggestions makes me think he isn't in the right specialty. He probably needs to go back to school & try for an ER position.
Wow 7 years in PM. Is the PM Dr. still giving you injections? Are they helping at all?
Mine I could have some immeadiate relief for about 1-2 days. Then right back to where it was. The PM said he thinks it should have lasted longer since I had immeadiate relief. I don't know if I should have or not. He was also thinking though that it is "Facet" not spinal cord,disc & such though.
I have had a LP before, so I pretty much know what to expect. As long as they can do it without tryng 7-10 times like the LP went. I was in pain for that.
The reason for the Lp was due to white matter on my brain,& an episode of a tia or a MS episode... Not real sure what it was due to no more episodes in 4 years or so.

Hello. How are you? I just got my MRI results back yesterday and really need help in reading it too. I also have Degenerative Disc Disease and a couple bulged discs. It's the first time I've been diagnosed with a Scoliosis, and I'm pretty shocked of all these findings. I knew something was wrong tho, with all the pain I have. I can't even sit without pain after 2 to 3 minutes. Can you please read mine, even tho you need someone to read yours? Do you know anything about DDD? Or, bulged discs?? Know anything about Scoliosis? I really don't. And, as far as surgery goes, have you ever had any type of back/spine surgery before?? I apologize for maybe overwhelming you, I just am really desperate to understand what I have here. My Dr. wouldn't discuss with me yet. Until I got there to my appt. yesterday, he didn't even know he'd gotten back the MRI yet. Well, if you can help in any way, I'll really be grateful. Either way, it's nice to meet you. I'm pretty new here, I've only been here about 10 days now. Have a good one!

I will post on here tomorrow afternoon. I was actually going to post on yours a few minutes ago. But I am on my phone & will be a lot easier for me.on my laptop & chair. I also use a lot of Google,*********, and such... But I will do my best for.
Until then I hope you have a good.day.

Hey there...yup 7 yrs in PM. I do still get injections every 2-3 months. He does 4 injections in my low back. I'll tell ya, even though he does a numbing shot in each site prior....it hurts like crazy, the lower two injections in particular. To this day he is amazed that I feel so much in the surgical site area. As he said, I've been totally sliced and diced so many times its amazing that I would be feeling anything much less it being so hyper painful ( he does have a sense of humor so he was saying it like that to be somewhat lighthearted...i know, not everyones sense of humor but hes a nice dr). Just the slightest amount of pressure in that area makes me wince. Actually trying to touch anywhere across my low back is unbearable. Half the time I wonder if it could possibly be some pain from the hardware. According to the dr....even ones that didn't do the surgeries on me, structural it all looks totally fine. I can't have an MRI done, we tried yrs ago and the metal is just too much interference in that area. Meanwhile, since then I had a spinal cord stimulator implanted so now no mri's at all. It's a programmed device with a battery implanted sort of below your low back kinda the upper buttock area. The wires from that run up to between my shoulder blades. So the MRI could actually do damage to the device. Since my car accident, I did have a scan of my head because of the unbearable headaches that went on for months, but that was fine. When I was just back at my general dr, he took fresh X-rays of my neck because it is still feeling like a disaster. In his true form, he never called me to tell me what the radiologist had to say after looking them over. I'm thinking I'm going to need a scan of my neck of some sort.
So how are things going with all of your issues? When will you go for your mylogram ? Hopefully with the tests they can get a better idea of what's going on. Oh and by the way....did you mean that the previous time you went for a mylogram they stuck you 7+ times trying to get it right?! If so ....that is criminal! No one should have to endure that! Anyway, hope all is going well with you....I'm sure your wife is going to read every report to make sure everyone is on the same page! Good luck.

The time I was stuck 7+ times was the LP for spinal fluid... I finally told the Dr. that I will go into the "fetal position" & he got within 2 tries. Needless to say I didn't go back to him. The reason for these tests were because brother has MS.

I has an episode of a TIA or MS attack(still don't know to this date), so the doctors were unsure. I had some elevated protien, -BAER,-VEP tests But he(the Dr.) still wasn't sure of me having MS.

I have a friend that has the stimulator in his back too. He says it helps sometime & sometimes it isn't worth a darn....

I went yesterday to take my Mom to get a lung xray(possible pnuemoia & I just lost an uncle due to that too). So I had them(indepentant radiologist company) burn me a cd & report of a MRI I had done in 2010..... Needless to say their report is different from the ones the hospital says.
I know if you get 10 radiologist together to read a set of X-ray,MRI's,CT scans... They would all have different opinions...

Well went to Louisville,Ky yesterday:
The news is a 2 part surgery is suggested from Dr.G...
It will consist of going in fron the back of the neck,
place a cage as he put it(I don't know what a cage is).
Then a couple days later go in from the front & try to pull the cevical discs to correct the "Lordosis" in the neck. I go on March 6th to see another nuerosugeon in Louisville for yet another consult to try to see if he actually agrees with Dr.G & the best plan of action.
Dr.G said that it wasn't an have to right now surgery. But it also is not an elective surgry.. He said one little jolt,small wreck, or even a sneeze could "PARALYZE MY LEFT SIDE"!
What gets me is how in the heck did this joke of a doctor here in Evansville not see this? My PM doctor knew something wasn't right, so that is why he sent me to "Norton Neurosciences & Spine Rehabilitation Center"...
Man am I so glad of that! The nut job up here said... & I quote from his notes: "Possible Carpal Tunnel"